Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday expressed optimism over improvement in tax collections after the roll out of Goods and Services Tax hopefully from July 2017.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley talks to West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra and Puducherry CM V Narayanasami at a GST Council Meeting, at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi.(PTI)

Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday expressed optimism over improvement in tax collections after the roll out of Goods and Services Tax (GST). The states deadline for the roll out of the new tax is July 1, 2017.

“In the last two years, tax buoyancy has improved. For 2016-17, the budget estimate was Rs 16.25 lakh crore. We revised it up to Rs 17 lakh crore. It is possible to surpass even the revised target as well. For 2017-18, the target for tax collection is set at Rs 19.25 lakh crore,” Jaitley said replying to lawmakers query on the Finance Bill.

“We expect a big change in tax collection from July. The GST Council has finalised the legislation after arriving at a consensus of all issues in the last 12 meetings,” he said adding that the government is trying to stick to the deadline for GST implementation.

“The last date for GST roll out is September 15 but we are trying it from July,” Jaitley said.

The Cabinet recently approved the four crucial bills—CGST, IGST, UT-GST and Compensation Rule—needed to roll out GST.

The GST Council has already finalized a four-slab GST structure of 5%, 12%, 18% and 28%.